[10] The city is dominated by a pervasive college town culture and music scene centered in downtown Athens, next to the University of Georgia's North Campus.

[12] In the late 18th century, a trading settlement on the banks of the Oconee River called Cedar Shoals stood where Athens is today.

On July 25, 1801, John Milledge, one of the trustees and later governor of Georgia, bought 633 acres from Daniel Easley and donated it to the university.

Milledge named the surrounding area Athens after the city that was home to the Platonic Academy of Plato and Aristotle in Classical Greece.

The town grew as lots adjacent to the college were sold to raise money for the additional construction of the school.

[16] During the American Civil War,[17] Athens became a significant supply center when the New Orleans armory was relocated to what is now called the Chicopee building.

In addition, Athens played a small part in the ill-fated "Stoneman Raid" when a skirmish was fought on a site overlooking the Middle Oconee River near what is now the old Macon Highway.

[18] A Confederate memorial that used to stand on Broad Street near the University of Georgia Arch was removed the week of August 10, 2020.

[22] The theater at the Morton Building hosted movies and performances by black musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington.

[23] During World War II, the U.S. Navy built new buildings and paved runways to serve as a training facility for naval pilots.

[24] In 1961, Athens witnessed part of the civil rights movement when Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes became the first two black students to enter the University of Georgia.

[25] Despite the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954, the Athens–Clarke County school district remained segregated until 1964.

[45] Its climatic regime is typical of that of the Southeastern United States, with hot summers transitioning into cool winters, with precipitation consistently high throughout the year.

The large population increase from 1990 to 2000 reflects the city's expanded boundaries that came with the consolidation of Athens and Clarke County, and not merely an influx of new residents.

[70] Athens is home to a growing number of young technology companies including Docebo, Roundsphere, and Cogent Education.

The city is also home to more established technology companies such as Partner Software, Peachtree Medical Billing, and Digital Insight.

The University of Georgia also hosts its own biotechnology research centers mostly from the lower east side of town bordering Oconee county.

In May 2020, RWDC Industries, a company that develops alternatives to single-use plastics, announced its plan to invest $260 million into the city and the surrounding area and acquire an existing 400,000-square-foot facility.

Authors with previous, or current, residence in the city include Pulitzer Prize winners Deborah Blum and Edward Larson, as well as Judith Ortiz Cofer, Reginald McKnight, Coleman Barks, and Jon Jefferson.

The Athens music scene grew in the early 1970s and later during the 1980s with the Georgia Theatre and 40 Watt Club as the aforementioned bands scored breakout hits.

Other notable bands were Widespread Panic, Dreams So Real, Indigo Girls, Vigilantes of Love, Matthew Sweet, The Method Actors, Love Tractor, Pylon, Flat Duo Jets, The Primates, Modern Skirts, The Whigs, Squalls, Drive-by Truckers, Futurebirds, Bloodkin, Randall Bramblett, Vic Chesnutt, Tishamingo, Bubba Sparxxx, Dead Confederate, Corey Smith, and Humble Plum.

[79] National acts that have come out of Athens include: The Whigs, Reptar, Danger Mouse, Dreams So Real, Nana Grizol, Jucifer, Servotron, Vic Chesnutt, Drive-By Truckers, Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, Lera Lynn, The Sunshine Fix, Colt Ford, Brantley Gilbert, Harvey Milk, The Olivia Tremor Control, of Montreal, Widespread Panic, Perpetual Groove, Five Eight, Dead Confederate, Thayer Sarrano, Jet by Day, Mothers, and Humble Plum.

The first round of inductees included The B-52s, Danger Mouse, Drive-By Truckers, The Elephant 6 Recording Company, Hall Johnson, Neal Pattman, Pylon, R.E.M., Vic Chesnutt, and Widespread Panic.

[99] The 1940 film The Green Hand was shot in Athens, using local townspeople and students and faculty from the University of Georgia as its cast.

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) is the primary point of departure and arrival for Athenians due to the relative lack of air service to AHN.

Athens has no direct passenger rail service; the closest Amtrak stations are in Atlanta, Gainesville, and Toccoa.

Until the 1950s and 1960s the Seaboard Air Line Railroad's daily Cotton Blossom (ended, 1955), Washington - Atlanta, Silver Comet, New York - Birmingham and Tidewater (ended, 1968), Norfolk - Birmingham service made stops at the SAL's Athens depot at College Avenue and Ware Street, north of downtown.

[113][114] Into the same period, the Central Railroad of Georgia ran mixed passenger and freight trains south to Macon's Terminal Station.

[124] In March 2018, Piedmont Healthcare announced a $171 million capital investment project for Piedmont Athens Regional which would include the addition of a fourth story to the Prince 2 building[125] as well as the demolition of the 100-year-old 1919 Tower to make space for a new, state of the art, seven-story tower.

The City of Athens maintains trade development programs, cultural, and educational partnerships in a twinning agreement with Bucharest, Romania.